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Day #181: Slither (2006)

[From IMDb:]A small town is taken over by an alien plague, turning residents into zombies and all forms of mutant monsters.

My take:

Generally speaking, I try to qualify my opinion on movies as much as possible. That way, even if I disagree with someone, at least they know where I’m coming from.

So, here’s the thing. Even though I think Slither is funny, and even though I think it does a fantastic job with its body horror, I…don’t know what I think about it? And I can’t really explain why that is.

I guess I’m going to try anyway, though.

I like the comedic style of Slither. It’s got that underplayed, slightly deadpan sarcasm to it that most appeals to me. The script is made up of, like, 50% witty one-liners, delivered with verve by a cast that clearly does comedy well.

It’s also a gross movie. Like, super gross. Blood and guts and gore and exploding bodies and dripping alien semen gross. Whoever designed the creatures in Slither has a wonderfully fucked up mind, and whoever brought them to life – both with computer graphics and physical effects – must have had a shitload of fun making this movie, with all the things they got to do in this movie.

So, on the one hand, funny; on the other hand, gory. What’s my problem, then?

I just…don’t know if the two elements are blended together all that effectively. At least, not consistently enough to really bring the horror out in the same way that the comedy is brought out. It’s a gross movie, sure, but it’s not at all scary. And this is despite several scenes that seem to be designed to scare, or at least evoke scary scenes from those movies to which its paying homage.

I suppose it’s possible that being scary was never the intention, and that I’m looking for something that was never meant to be there. That doesn’t mean I can’t help but feel that Slither is an incomplete – if not bad – movie, though.